It Makes Sense That Life Makes No Sense

“How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart daily? How long will my enemy be exalted over me?” (Psalm 13:2).

The tag line to this psalm reads, “A Psalm of David,” but it might just as easily have read, “A Psalm of Dewey.”

I rather suspect that you could just as readily attach your name to this psalm as David or me. There is something satisfyingly common about the human experience. Life tends to be the great equalizer. We just aren’t that different from one another.

I point this out because you might find yourself tempted to think, “David was a king. I am not a king. David lived some three thousand years ago, a full millennium BC – before Christ was even born. I am living now, at the front end of the twenty-first century AD. How can I possibly relate to David? What could David possibly say to me? Turns out that he has a lot to say. And we should listen.

The trajectory of David’s troubled and tortured life circumscribes an arc that takes him from the humble beginnings of a shepherd boy to the dizzying heights of leading God’s people and crowing Jerusalem as God’s Holy City, to the downward spiral of a murderous adulterer, to a man hated and hunted by an assortment of enemies including one of his sons. Yes, it’s true that many of David’s problems were self-inflicted, the results of multiple foolish choices that “a man after God’s own heart” should have known better than to make.

Melancholy in temperament and musical in talent, David’s prodigious output of songs formed the nucleus of ancient Israel’s Psalter or hymnal. Read through his psalms and you will find riding an emotional rollercoaster with David at the helm as he zigzags through the whole spectrum of human emotions, questions, and doubts. Psalm 13 is but one example, on with which most everyone of us can readily identify.

As you listen to the agony of his soul as it pours out of David’s pen, ask yourself if you have ever felt like this. I know that I have. You might perhaps be feeling some of these emotions and asking some of these questions even today.

David asks, “O Lord, how long will you forget me? Forever?” Be honest now. Don’t you sometimes wonder if God has forgotten you? I know I have. I seek Him but do not sense Him. I talk to Him, but hear no answer. I pray to Him, yet nothing changes. I am haunted by the fear that (a) the skeptics might be right after all when they say there is no God, or (b) if there is a God, He is so busy running this gigantic Universe of ours that He couldn’t possibly have the time to pay attention to me.

David continues, “How long will you look the other way?” Reading between the lines, it’s not a stretch to suggest that David is wrestling with such questions as, Is God purposely ignoring me? Perhaps He is mad at me or disappointed in me and turns His head away in anger. If He really loves me, He wouldn’t let this happen to me. It’s not fair. It’s not my fault. Sound familiar? It sure does to me.

“How long must I struggle with anguish in my soul, with sorrow in my heart every day?” Here is the heart of the matter. Anguish of soul and unceasing sorrow. Today, most any Primary Care Physician would prescribe for David the latest greatest antidepressant medication coupled with some serious long-term therapy. David sounds downright suicidal. Given his many challenges, we can understand why. Only those of us who have walked a similar dark path can begin to relate to the hopeless despair that drowned David’s soul. Keep in mind, these anguished cries are coming from a man so loved by God that the very first verse of the New Testament identifies God’s only begotten Son as “Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.” Which begs the question, Why should my life be any different than David’s?

“How long will my enemy have the upper hand?” This, for me, is the crux of the issue. Why do the evil doers who ruined some aspect of my life seem to prosper while I am left to suffer?

“Turn and answer me, O Lord my God! Restore the sparkle to my eyes, or I will die. Don’t let my enemies gloat, saying, ‘We have defeated him!’ Don’t let them rejoice at my downfall.” Having gone through this very thing – watching and listening as those who purposely hurt me now gloat over what they have done – I can tell you that there is nothing more painful in all the world to endure.

Ah. But they didn’t get the last word. They never do. Knowing this, David made a choice. So have I. Have you? The choice is this: But I trust in your unfailing love. I will rejoice because you have rescued me. I will sing to the Lord because he is good to me.”

No doubt about it. Just when David’s life seem to be spinning hopelessly out of control – his enemies winning while he was losing – David did something about it. He made a choice – to trust, to rejoice, and to sing. So can we. Because once the dust settles and the situation comes to its final conclusion, we will know once again that “He is good to me.”